Academic writing for Honours Academic writing It is

Academic writing for Honours

Academic writing • It is a concise, focused and well structured writing which define intellectual boundaries of a particular discipline • Its evidence is in a form of references which support what is written to propose theories and ideas • It uses of the third-person rather than first-person perspective • It has a clear on focus the research problem under investigation, • The first step to writing academically is to clearly define the purpose of the writing and the audience

Arrange your points in logical order Have a clear idea of what you want to say Create a list of your main points Think about what the reader needs to know Once you have a clear idea of what is required for your project and you can start planning your research and gathering evidence • Find academic information from reliable, reviewed and published resources (journals, books, conference proceedings). • Avoid publications from predatory publishers • •

Write in structured paragraphs • Use paragraphs to structure your ideas • Each of the points or theme forms a different paragraph • From the first or second sentence make your point clear so that a reader can follow the line of reasoning • The rest of the paragraph should explain the point or theme in detail and provide relevant evidence/references • Evidence can be data, facts, quotations, arguments, statistics, research and theories

Use formal language • You are expected to use formal language and not confrontational or dismissive language • Each subject discipline has certain writing styles and terms, that you will be used to as you progress with your degree • Do not use of long sentences and complicated vocabulary • Avoid using colloquialisms or slang terms or regional dialects

Language • Write words out in full rather than shortening them. Instead of writing “can’t don't” or “isn't” you are expected to write “cannot, do not” or “is not” • Do not use personal nouns (e. g. I, me, you, us, we) may lead the reader to believe the study was overly subjective

Be concise Only include one main idea per sentence Keep your sentences to a reasonable length Express precisely what you mean Long sentences can be difficult to follow and this may distract from your point • Avoid repetition • Avoid using redundant words • •

Summarise work of other writers • Summary provides a shortened version of someone else’s work. Make sure that you: – identify the relevant points depending on your purpose – Write a shortened version, in your own words, to show your understanding – Include an in-text citation and reference to the original author • Revise, edit and proofread your work – Most writing will require several drafts and revisions in order to improve the clarity and quality

Conclusion • The conclusion brings together the main points • Highlights the key results, outputs, message from the project for a reader to take away • Identifies gaps or weaknesses or new ideas presented by the study • Recommends further research or investigation where appropriate • Use the present tense for conclusion

Referencing • Cite sources and provide a list of references • Citing sources allow readers to identify the resources so they can independently verify and assess the quality of findings and conclusions based on your review of the literature